JULIA Gillard has ducked questions about whether Labor will raid super funds in the May budget.

Asked about speculation the government is poised to raid superannuation contributions and earnings in the May budget, the PM would only promise an increase in the super guarantee from 9 to 12 per cent.

Funding to pay for tax concessions to allow the increase are supposed to come from the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) - an impost the Coalition would scrap in government.

''The Opposition wants to take a benefit of $500 from more than 3 million workers,'' Ms Gillard told reporters in Perth.

''We have created a scheme which gives working Australians the opportunity to look forward to a decent retiring income,'' she said, adding ''you can always trust Labor with superannuation''.

Tony Abbott insisted the Liberals would not launch a ''smash and grab raid'' on super funds under a Coalition government.

''I can guarantee that we will not launch sneak attacks on peoples savings...a smash and grab raid on the superannuation of the Australian people,'' he said.

''The government should keep its hand off it.''

But the Opposition leader said he didn't rule out beneficial changes to supernannuation

''We do not rule out changes to super but at the moment there is a terrible budget hole created by this government...so we're not making positive promises but we are saying there will be no unexpected, adverse changes to your superannuation under a Coalition government,'' Mr Abbott told reporters.

''The government should not be raiding your money to get money for itself''

One of the key agitators in Labor's leadership fiasco said he won't vote for raids on superannuation.

''We need to realise that the days in which money was flowing in as it was in the past decade or so ago have well and truly passed.''

But Mr Bradbury accused the Coalition of planning to rip away tax concessions for Australia's lowest income earners.

He said the Opposition's claims it wouldn't adjust the super system were ''rubbish''.

Senior Liberal MP Kevin Andrews said Mr Bradbury had a chance to rule out any further tax hikes to superannuation and hadn't taken it.

But he wouldn't confirm whether an Abbott government would increase compulsory super guarantees from nine to 12 per cent, as Labor is promising.

''We need a government which is going to look to these things over the next two or three decades rather than one that's just concerned about the next two or three weeks and surviving,'' Mr Andrews said.

The government has been peppered with questions over its plans for superannuation in the May 14 budget following speculation it was planning to change the tax concessions to hit super contributions and earnings for higher earners.

It follows a call from Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson last year that superannuation tax concessions needed to be changed in order to preserve the tax revenue base as the population ages.

Julia Gillard yesterday would not clarify if the government was planning the move.

''When we think about superannuation we think about what is in the interest of decent working people ... and what is in the interest of the long term sustainability of the system,'' the Prime Minister said.

Tony Abbott said Labor was attempting to mortgage the savings of hard workers for its own fiscal gain.

Meanwhile, the Coalition will not confirm whether it would reverse a possible Labor raid on wealthy people's superannuation tax concessions.

"People across Australia doing the right thing, by saving so they can look after their own needs in retirement, deserve certainty and stability in superannuation policy," Senator Cormann told ABC Radio this morning.

Asked if a Coalition government would reverse the changes, he said the Opposition ''does not want to see increased taxes on super in the budget''.

"We will not be able to fix every bad decision that Labor makes in the budget on day one," Senator Cormann said.

The Australian people should pressure the government not to make any changes to super, he said.

The Coalition plans to scrap a low-income superannuation tax offset because it was funded by the mining tax, which the Opposition wants to repeal.

Senator Cormann said the Federal Government could not afford the low-income super tax offset.

Former chief government whip Joel Fitzgibbon has raised concerns about Labor's definition of wealthy.

"In Sydney's west you can be on a quarter of a million dollars family income a year and you're still struggling," Mr Fitzgibbon told Fairfax media.

News.com.au's Privacy Policy includes important information about our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information (including to provide you with targeted content and advertising based on your online activities). It explains that if you do not provide us with information we have requested from you, we may not be able to provide you with the goods and services you require. It also explains how you can access or seek correction of your personal information, how you can complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with a complaint of that nature.

Comments on this story

Kerry Webb Posted at 2:44 PM March 28, 2013

Umm, isn't the government getting this money to go into the NDIS, education funding etc? They're not taking it for their own gain, but for ours.

Pollies receive guaranteed tax payer funded lifetime pensions.... these pensions won't be cut or in anyway reduced while the rest of us Cyprians (sorry, I mean Australians) get raided...
But don't feel ripped off, Comrades, by our glorious ALP revolutionaries who will benefit from these raids. Instead, feel honoured that in about 40 years after the last of our great leaders of the Gillard / Swan Goverment receive their last dollar of tax payer funded lifetime pension payment worth more than most earn as a full time wage, you'll have the opportunity to sell your home to fund the building of their grand masoleums.
Actually, it will probably be the debts they racked up those 40 years ago... but either way, we'll be paying it....

A NOTE ABOUT RELEVANT ADVERTISING: We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites.